chalk

[alicornucopia]

In Paraasilan, Esmaar, a pair of roommates are about to break a rule that, compared to the one about running in the corridors or even the one about unlicensed teleportation, is there for a good reason.

In unison, they complete their shared spell.

~~~

with Adarin (Aestrix)

with Ekador (kappa)

with Brilliance (kappa)

with the admin (kappa)

with Teah (kappa)

with Katran (lambda)

with Hall (kappa)

with Joy (kappa)

with Kalinda (Christy Hotwater)

Comments

[aeskhyne]

"Define 'idiotic', I'm having trouble finding an example in history. People don't seem to cast them that often."

[alicornucopia]

"That is because they're idiotic," says Kaylo. "It extrapolates the future. The problem is, what I'm likely to do feeds into the future. So if I'm in the wrong frame of mind - it's not even an intentional component like normal spells - when I cast it, then my decisions if I get whatever result will feed into it and I get noise. For the spell to be useful I have to sit on the sidelines enough for it to get a result that doesn't factor me in, but not so far that I can't interrupt if it turns out giving you a potion will be a disaster. And you will too, since I guess you'll be able to both see what results I get and affect the processes that would lead to them."

[aeskhyne]

"Okay. So I have to be - really predictable," he says. "And we have to figure out how to get mortal me to be really predictable even if he doesn't remember who I am? That sounds hard."

[alicornucopia]

"It might work if he'd definitely not do some specific thing that miraculous-you can agree to do. But it might not work for that or any of a hundred other reasons."

[aeskhyne]

"Hmmm... he doesn't speak all the languages I do," he says. "Un-translation-spell him, ask him a really simple question in Draconic or vampire like 'Which way to the bottom of the world', then if he's me he knows to say 'Down', otherwise you're going to get something like 'what the hell?' And that's how you'll know if he either speaks the language or remembers being me well enough to get the answer. And if I'm still out here active, whether he remembers me or doesn't or what, have somebody be praying for a signal and I'll, I dunno, turn the floor purple. Would that work?"

[alicornucopia]

"Translation spells don't work on Draconic, so undoing his spell isn't necessary," says Kaylo. "Okay. I'll need accomplices..."

[aeskhyne]

"Got anybody in mind?"

[alicornucopia]

"Not really, do you?"

[aeskhyne]

"There's that vampire girl, I guess..."

[alicornucopia]

"Somebody who is both here and likely to be on board with the project?"

[aeskhyne]

"She goes to this school. I don't know if she'd want to help, but we could ask."

[alicornucopia]

"Okay. What's her room number? Or do you want to ask her yourself?"

[aeskhyne]

"I'll ask her myself. It's relevant enough."

And Leekath can have a paper bird, fluttering around her room, with a message written on the inside.

Hi! The me you met earlier collapsed when he figured out he was me, and I'm getting somebody to do a prediction spell to see what'll happen if somebody tries to wake him up, and he needs as he put it an 'accomplice'. Wanna help? -Teah

[alicornucopia]

Leekath listens to the note. "What do you want me to do?" she asks.

[aeskhyne]

Good question, says further writing on the interior of the bird.

"What do we want her to do exactly? Just go feed me a waking potion when you say, or is there other stuff?"

[alicornucopia]

"Be going to feed you the potion; if the results are good she can follow through, but then so can I - can you manufacture one if I ask or do I have to go to a witch's and buy one? - and memorize a phonetic sentence in Draconic and ask you if you wake up."

[aeskhyne]

"All right." He transmits this information to Leekath. (The list continues to grow in the meantime, although he hasn't been recording his conversation with Kaylo on it.) "Pretty sure I can come up with a potion, but let me look one up and double-check—"

He double-checks, answering a few prayers and updating the list again while he's at it.

"Yeah, I can do that."

[alicornucopia]

"Okay. Give it to her, tell her to wait, I'll go look up what there is in the way of foretelling spells and pick the least stupid one; you can presumably tell her how to ask about the bottom of the world in Draconic and she can get on learning to pronounce it."

[aeskhyne]

He appears Leekath a bottled waking potion with a little tag on it that says 'not yet', and - after observing her collection of music crystals - a crystal with "Which way to the bottom of the world?" recorded on it in Draconic, and a note explaining that if they go through with the experiment she is to ask him this question.

Then he offers Kaylo the choice of a sparkly teleport to the library, answers some prayers, has a quick peek through the library for relevant books, and marks the ones he finds with tiny little fluffy creatures clinging to the tops of their spines. The creatures are brightly coloured, and look sort of like extremely small Snitch-winged bird-feeted pompoms.

[alicornucopia]

Kaylo goes ahead and skips the lift trip, uses conventional library spells to get ahold of the books, picks up a critter, snorts, puts it down, and starts looking through the selection. Eventually he has one picked out. It requires a diagram. "Can I get a stick of summoning chalk? I don't have my own at the moment."

[aeskhyne]

A stick of summoning chalk appears! The library creatures form a tidy little pile on an out-of-the-way corner of Kaylo's table once he has collected all the books that have one attached.

[alicornucopia]

Kaylo takes the chalk, checks out the book, and goes into one of the practice rooms attached to the library rather than all the way back to his room. He starts drawing his diagram.

[aeskhyne]

The library creatures disperse. Teah watches Kaylo, listens to Leekath, and grants assorted prayers.

[alicornucopia]

"All right," says Kaylo, when his diagram is done, "tell her she can go ahead and intend on giving you the potion, now, we'll see how this goes."

[aeskhyne]

The tag on Leekath's waking potion changes its message to Time to be going to use me!